FIVE years of success in the Midlands were celebrated last month when ATV staff, their friends and families packed the Aston studios for the Gala Anniversary Programme.

Mr Val Parnell, who had just returned from the United States, came to Birmingham to produce the programme personally.

When the gala show went on the air at 11.15 p.m., it was five years ago almost to the minute that Independent Television in the Midlands was launched.

In 1956 less than 1,000,000 viewers were watching. Now that figure has rocketed to more than 5,500,000.

Beryl Reid, Morecambe and Wise, Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss came from Midland pantos for the sparkling 45-minute variety show directed by Reg Watson and introduced by Noele Gordon.

The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Birmingham, Ald. Garnet Boughton and Mrs Boughton, were welcomed by Mr Philip Dorté, Midlands Controller, and Ald. Mrs Pearl Hyde, Midlands Public Relations Officer.

Others who took part in the show included: Jerry Allen and his Trio, Alfie Bass (Bootsie) and Bill Fraser (Snudge), Jean Morton, Patricia Cox, Susan Denny, Eula Parker, Evadne Price, Roy Edwards, Alan Grahame, Ken Ingarfield, Pat Astley, Peter Regan, Lionel Ruben, Leslie Dunn, The Ponytones and the George Carden Dancers.

The post Our Midlands party appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

PHILIP DORTÉ, ATV’s Midlands Controller, was only 22 when he was offered a job by the General Electric Company of America to work on the development of radio at their Schenectady works in New York.

From Downside he had gone to Cambridge but finding no provision there for the study of electrical engineering he attended Faraday House instead.

After reading a paper on radio to students at the Institute of Electrical Engineers, the young Dorté was approached by a member of his audience.

“Would you like to work for us in New York?” asked the G.E.C. man [sic: American General Electric was known as G.E.; the unrelated British General Electric was G.E.C. – Ed]. The young radio engineer jumped at the chance.

At New York, however, his sense of humour at once got him into trouble.

“Do you suffer from moral turpitude?” asked the immigration official.

“I said ‘Yes'” recalls Mr. Dorté “and I spent the night on Ellis island. The next morning the G.E.C. people had to come and get me out”.

In America he worked on the development of both TV and talking pictures and when his company secured the contract to build Toronto’s first high powered radio station, Mr. Dorté was put in charge.

While in Canada, he had the idea of approaching the French Government to secure a concession for broadcasting commercial radio programmes to Britain.

The French agreed and Mr. Dorté formed Radio Publicity Ltd. — in opposition to Mr. John Reith, as he then was, and his British Broadcasting Company.

“I suppose, I must have been the first Englishman to see the possibilities of commercial radio” he recalls.

“These were sponsored programmes and we had plenty of advertisers too — Black Cat cigarettes; Revelation suitcases and Grosvenor House Hotel…”

Transmissions were beamed to London on long wave. Tom Ronald, BBC sound radio producer, was one of the announcers.

Soon after this, Captain Leonard Plugge obtained a similar concession to operate Radio Normandy — on medium wave.

“Captain Plugge suggested an amalgamation” says Mr. Dorté, “I was agreeable but the rest of the Board were against it. I resigned.”

From commercial radio, Mr. Dorté switched to talking pictures. Basil Dean was just starting Ealing Studios and with his knowledge gained in America, Mr. Dorté was put in charge of the sound recording side.

From Ealing he joined Michael Balcon at Gaumont British, working in the old Lime Grove studios, now used by the BBC.

“I went on location abroad for all the big British films of that time” he says “This kept me out of the country for months on end. My wife took a dim view of this.

“Then one day I met an old friend of mine, John Hytch at the BBC, He told me the BBC were just about to start a television service and why didn’t I join them?”

Mr. Dorté thus became the BBC’s first TV Head of Outside Broadcasts. And for the next few years everything he organised was a FIRST.

“The first O.B. was the Coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1936″ he says. “Then there was Wimbledon, the Boat Race, a show a week from the London Coliseum and both the 38 and 39 Derbies.”

In the Spring of 1939, Mr. Done joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve. It was while he was doing an O.B. from the London Zoo that his wife came round with his calling-up papers.

With his TV and engineering background, he was a natural for radar.

Demobilised with the rank of Group Captain, he was awarded the OBE (Military Division) for his services.

As BBC TV expanded, Mr. Dorté switched over to films, becoming Head of TV Films in 1949.

“It was a constant battle with the film industry” he recalls “I fought them all the time. Finally I told them that if they wouldn’t co-operate with us over the question of newsreel coverage, we would start our own.

“They roared with laughter. They reminded me that cinema newsreels were fast going out of business. They said I didn’t stand a chance.”

Events proved Mr. Dorté right. He even put out a better service than the cinemas — by providing the BBC with a different newsreel daily as against the twice a week offering in the cinemas. And he started a Children’s TV Newsreel too.

In 1954 he quit the BBC to join Mr. Norman Collins as a senior executive of the original Associated Broadcasting Development Company which later merged with Moss Empires and other interests to become ATV.

In the early days of ITV he was seconded to Independent Television News for a year, then — as he puts it — Val Parnell asked him if he’d start the Company’s Midlands Operation.

“I’m still starting it” he says.

The post He pioneered commercial radio appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“The profit figure of £14,101,000 is the second highest in the 25-year history of the company. Indeed, had it not been for a national industrial dispute which kept the whole of Independent Television off the air for eleven successive weeks, the profit would undoubtedly have exceeded the record of £16,308,000 which was achieved in 1978/79”

[£14,101,000 is £57.5m in today’s money allowing for inflation. £16,308,000 is £66.5m – Ed]

Television

ATV’s current contract for seven-day-a-week television runs until 31st December 1981. By the end of 1980 the Independent Broadcasting Authority will reach its decision on the award of new contracts which will run for eight years. For the period of these contracts the Midlands franchise area will be a dual region comprising the East and West Midlands and ATV has applied for the contract.

A new company, ATV Midlands Limited, has already been set up and a second studio complex is planned for the East Midlands.

T.V. programmes

Initially a proportion of ATV productions will continue to be made at Elstree. Thereafter, Elstree will become available for additional television productions and for special programmes for export.

A new company, Daybreak Television, in which ACC has a minority interest, has made an application for the proposed nationwide breakfast-time television franchise, and Elstree has been suggested as the ideal production centre.

Films

Our subsidiaries now embrace all three aspects of production, distribution and exhibition and the acquisition of Classic Cinemas place more than 140 screens at our disposal. The full-length ‘Muppet Movie’ has broken box office records and its much sought after successor is already in production. Altogether, the film division production schedule has never been stronger.

Theatres

The theatre division enjoyed a year of truly outstanding successes and its profit figure of £1.1 million [£4.5m] stands at an all-time record. The year saw packed houses for Yul Brynner in ‘The King and I’ at the Palladium and ‘Annie’ at the Victoria Palace. The theatrical costumiers, Bermans & Nathans, established new overseas records and their work is to be seen in London’s exciting new attraction – ‘The Palladium Cellars’.

Music

Our main music publishing subsidiary, ATV Music, rose to be the No. 2 company in UK music publishing, and profits and prospects are both excellent. Its subsidiary company, Bruton Music, is now firmly established as a prominent supplier for both television and films.

Records

In common with all other record companies, Pye Records had to face a world-wide recession within the industry. Special attention is now being paid to the important new development of video cassettes and video discs.

Property

The results of Bentray Investments – up from £3.5 million [£14.3m] to £4.2 million [£17.1m] – are impressive and the acquisition of Intereuropean Property Holdings has added a new portfolio, including the important Eros site at Piccadilly Circus.

Telephone answering

For the second year in succession the results of Ansafone have been outstandingly successful and in spite of competition at home and abroad the growth rate has been one of 40%.

Insurance

Two Bermudian companies were purchased by Marbarch Insurance Company and a new company, Bryanston Insurance, has been established. Subsidiaries have been set up in Australia, Hong Kong and Gibraltar, and trading has been profitable throughout.

Jetsave

The Group acquired an 85% stake in Jetsave, a company which is both a pioneer and a leader in the rapidly growing field of trans-Atlantic holiday travel.

The post ATV financial results: 1980 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The 13th Annual General Meeting of Associated Television Corporation Limited was held at ATV House, Great Cumberland Place, London, W.1, on 26th September, 1968 at 12 noon.

The following are extracts from the Chairman’s Statement read at the meeting.

Since the year end we have been able to announce a further multi-million dollar U.S. deal for a new Millicent Martin television film series.

ATV Corporation is already one of the world’s greatest producers of filmed television series for international distribution. Current production costs run at some £7 million [£101.8m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] a year and by 1970, when we will also be among the world’s greatest producers of feature films for international distribution, ATV’s annual expenditure will have been approximately doubled. Very large revenues indeed will by then be flowing in from overseas and these, of course, are in no way subject to the Turnover Levy which falls so heavily upon ATV Network.

A recent issue of The Financial Times quoted a table showing the major U.K. companies in order of merit judged by their net profit as a percentage of capital invested. We were delighted to see that ATV came fifteenth out of all British Industry. This is a very high tribute to your management team led by Mr Lew Grade our Chief Executive, Mr. Robin Gill our Managing Director and Mr. Jack Gill our Finance Director.

The financing of Paradise Centre and the Group’s general needs are being looked at with our advisers, so that we have the appropriate cash available for our planned expansion.

The following are extracts from the Directors Report for the year ended 31st March, 1968.

GROUP RESULTS

The profit for the Group, before Levy and taxation, is £12,369,000 [£179.8m], an increase of £530,000 [£7.7m] over the results of last year.

This improvement is more than offset, however, by the increased amount of Levy (£6,186,000 [£89.9m] this year as against £5,761,000 [£83.8m] last year) in respect of your Company’s ATV Network operation, and the increased amount of taxation (£2,770,000 [£40.3m] as against £2,348,000 [£34.1m] last year) for the Group as a whole. Levy and taxation together reduce the Group’s profit to £3,413,000 [£49.6m] which is £317,000 [£4.6m] less than last year.

In the light of these trading results, your Board nevertheless feels fully justified in recommending on increase in the rate of dividend for the year. The final dividend of 15.9625% will bring the total for the year to 28.4625% (as against 27.5% lost year). This represents the maximum increase permitted by the Treasury.

Shareholders’ funds are £23,812,000 [£346.2m], as against £22,708,000 [£330.1m] for 1967.

DIVERSIFICATION

The proportion of Group Profits attributable to Subsidiaries has, during the year, risen to 45% as against 42% in the previous year and 30% for the year 1965/66. Inspection of the Group’s Financial Statistics will, indeed, reveal that progress in the Group’s trading activities outside the TV operation has been both rapid and consistent, viz., the conversion of a net loss situation of £303,000 [£4.4m] in 1962 into a profit figure of £2,749,000 [£40m] in this year’s Accounts.

The value of Group Export sales for the year totalled £5,650,000 [£82.1m].

TELEVISION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES

New ITA Contract. ATV Network Limited was awarded the Independent Television Authority’s Contract for the Midlands Area for six years, commencing 30th July, 1968. This is the major Contract under the current allocation of the Independent Television Authority.

New Midlands Studios. By the end of 1969, the Television Studio portion of the new ‘Paradise Centre’ in Birmingham will be complete. These studios will be fully equipped for the start of Independent Television’s Colour transmissions at the end of 1969, and will be the most modem in the world. Every advantage will be token of the latest technological developments In the television field, and of our years of experience with colour programming at Elstree.

PROGRAMMES FOR ALL SEASONS

During the year your Company mode more than 1,000 contributions to the Network, and fully maintained its leading position among the Independent Television programme makers.

One programme, the Royal Variety Performance, established a new record. Designed as a charity show in aid of the Variety Artistes’ Benevolent Fund, and given in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, this production was seen in 11½ million homes, representing some 40 million viewers.

‘Spotlight,’ a production for CBS of America, and ‘Show Time,’ seen on the same trans-Atlantic network, were both among the Colour programmes produced in ATV studios. Indeed, in the whole matter of Colour, ATV has been to the forefront. Even while home-viewers could see ATV programmes only in black-and-white, the Documentary department has been producing in full Colour. One programme in particular, ‘The Last Shangri-La,’ has been internationally acclaimed for the beauty of its photography.

FILM PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

ITC—Incorporated Television Company. It is this company which is responsible for all ATV’s film productions, and for distribution of films and television programmes in the Eastern hemisphere.

The current production schedule is an unusually full one. No fewer than four series are currently being filmed. Sales, moreover, are fully abreast of production.

Independent Television Corporation. This company, which acts as distributor of ATV films and television programmes throughout the Western hemisphere, has enjoyed an outstanding 12 months’ trading. The current year promises to be equally rewarding. ATV Series ‘Man in a Suitcase,’ ‘The Saint,’ ‘The Prisoner,’ ‘Show Time,’ and ‘The Champions’ hove all been shown on the U.S. Networks.

Century 21 Productions. The puppet films made by Century 21 Productions are world-famous in television and cinema alike. A new TV series, ‘Joe 90,’ is now ready; ‘The Secret Service,’ a revolutionary piece of production in which a live actor doubles with his puppet counterpart, is already on the studio floor.

THEATRES

Stoll Theatres Corporation. This Group has enjoyed a record year. It is particularly pleasing to announce that your theatre, the London Coliseum, has now become the new Opera House for Sadler’s Wells.

RECORDS AND MUSIC

Pye Records. Pye Records had a conspicuously successful year with profits again reaching a new record level. In 48 weeks out of 52, it has appeared among the Top Twenty despite the increased efforts of American competitors.

Music Publishing. Our existing companies, Welbeck Music, New World Music and Jubilee Music, continue to produce excellent results, and active steps are being taken to enlarge the scope of our music publishing interests.

PROPERTY AND INVESTMENT

Properties. All the various property assets of the Group are being concentrated within our subsidiary company Bentray Investments Limited.

These properties make an exciting portfolio with every indication of steady income growth over the years. There ore also large-scale development possibilities in the long-term in connection with certain of them though, for the time being, there are Government restrictions on office development and building in city centres.

The first major development of Bentray will take place in Birmingham. This, the ‘Paradise Centre’ site adjacent to the Town Hall in the heart of the city, will ultimately comprise a 6-acre development which is unique in character, and the final cost could exceed £15 million [£218m].

Canada. Our investments in British Columbia Television and CJCH Halifax are held by our wholly owned subsidiary, Canastel Broodcasting Corporation.

British Columbia Television has commenced to pay dividends and the company has achieved excellent growth during the lost two or three years. In the cose of CJCH the progress is slower and the market a more difficult one. However, in our opinion the value of our investment is well protected.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Ambassador Bowling. This company has continued to be profitable. Indeed, the general recession in the industry which has led to the closure of a number of competing bowling centres has proved a direct benefit to Ambassador Bowling.

Planned Music Group. Substantial progress was mode during the past year. It is calculated that approximately 3½ million people in the United Kingdom listen to Muzak every week, and this number is growing steadily. Worth-while contracts for the supply of equipment hove been obtained from Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and Israel.

Bermans. This company has hod the most successful year in its history. On the continent, Bermans is now recognised as the major film and theatrical costumiers of Europe.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

The Board wishes to express its most sincere thanks to those members of ATV’s staff at all levels who have so conscientiously served the Corporation during the past year.

The post ATV financial results: 1968 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

“POLICY OF PLANNED EXPANSION WILL BE VIGOROUSLY PURSUED”

Before I comment on the year’s results — which, for the fourth successive occasion, I must describe as truly excellent — let me refer to four important events in your Company’s history.

(i)        ATV Network Ltd., your wholly-owned subsidiary, has been awarded the seven-day-a-week Contract for the Midlands from 30th July, 1968, for a period of six years. This is the major Contract offered by the Independent Television Authority.

(ii)        Associated Television, the first television, film and programme producing Group to be recognized in this way, has been honoured by being chosen as a recipient of the Queen’s Award to Industry for Export achievement in 1967.

(iii)        The range of your Company’s operations is now so extensive that your Board has felt for some time that a new title would be more proper Accordingly, it is being proposed that Associated Television Ltd., the parent Company of the Group, should be renamed Associated Television Corporation Ltd.

(iv)        Mr. Lew Grade has been appointed a Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of your Company, and Mr. Robin Gill has been appointed Managing Director.

GROUP RESULTS

The consolidated Profit and Loss Account shows a profit for the Group, before Levy and taxation, of £11,838,787 [£179.3m in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed], an increase of £779,476 [£11.8m] over the results of the previous year (£11,059,311 [£167.5m]).

The Levy on Television Advertising Revenue amounts to £5,761,068 [£87.2m] and is £328,702 [£5m] higher than last year. After deducting this levy, the profit before taxation amounts to £6,077,719 [£92m] (last year £5,626,945 [£85.2m]).

Taxation for the year is £2,348,188 [£35.6m] as against the previous year’s figure of £2,780,325 [£42.1m]. After adding back £528,697 [£8m] in respect of a provision for depreciation no longer required, the Group profit after deducting the Levy and taxation amounts to £4,258,228 [£64.5m] as compared with £2,846,620 [£43.1m] last year.

The Shareholders’ funds, at £22,708,000 [£344m], are more than £5,000,000 [£75.7m] greater than at the end of the previous year. The total increase since 1963 now amounts to £12,589,000 [£190.7m].

ATV GROWTH FACTOR. In an article, entitled “British Business Growth League,” published in the June, 1967, issue of “Management Today,” ATV was shown as the top company in the country for percentage increase in pre-tax profit for the period 1957-66.

In the same article, ATV was included in the list of Top Ten companies for percentage increase both in net capital employed and gross cash flow for the same period.

FUTURE PROSPECTS. I must refer to the disturbing economic conditions which prevail, but in your Company’s affairs, two major factors, both highly encouraging, now colour the whole situation.

In the first place, the matter of the ATV Network Licence is satisfactorily settled, and your subsidiary’s profitable working into the mid-1970s can realistically be predicted.

Secondly, in the year under review, the non-licence operations within your Group contributed some 42% to the Company’s overall profits; and the high level of these non-licence earnings should be at least maintained.

I am able, therefore, to inform shareholders that I find both sides of your Company’s activities in good order, and can assure them that our announced policy of Planned Expansion will be vigorously pursued.

ATV NETWORK

THE NEW MIDLAND CONTRACT. I have already referred to the new seven-day-a-week Contract for the Midlands (10.4 million population) which the Authority has awarded to your Company.

This is the Contract for which your Company applied. It enables us to enlarge our long-standing interest in the Midlands, and also to maintain the greatest possible output of programmes for the national network.

From the outset of Independent Television, ATV has urged undivided weekly working as preferable in every way to the weekday/week-end split; and your Company is delighted that it will now be able to provide the unified and unbroken seven-day-a-week service which the Midland viewer deserves.

Shareholders will appreciate that the previous short Licence period of three years, the extension of one year, and uncertainties as to the future shape of Independent Television, rendered long term planning impossible. For the first time, your Company con see a clear course ahead of it, and a new studio complex will be erected. Plans for this were commissioned over three years ago. The studios will be the most up-to-date in the country and will be built with all the requirements of Colour in mind.

Now that the Authority has clarified the whole position, and ATV Network con concentrate its interest on the Midlands viewer, the Board of ATV Network will be strengthened by the addition of leading Midlands figures, and resident Executive Directors from within the Company.

I am very happy indeed that it should be Mr. Bill Ward, for so long one of the key men in ATV who becomes an Executive Director of ATV Network. Mr. Leonard Mathews, who, as Midlands Controller, has played such an important role for the Company, has also been appointed to the Board.

THE MIDLANDS. Both local and nationally networked programmes hove shown a notable increase during the past year.

The daily serial, “Crossroads,” continues to enjoy top programme ratings, and the televising of the 500th episode in 1966 was celebrated by a dinner in Birmingham attended by viewers drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom.

ATV’s weekday network programme for children, “Tingha and Tucker Club” — the most popular in British television — has been joined by a Sunday network programme, “Tree House Family,” which is now seen in over 4 million homes.

The new regular weekly programme, “Midland Member,” enables a Member of Parliament from one of the 107 constituencies in the area to give a first-hand account of the work at Westminster; this is now recognised os providing one of the most important political contributions to Midlands life.

The magazine programme, “ATV Today,” continues to attract an audience of well over three million viewers; and, during the year ATV’s film unit covered more than 70,000 miles in collecting items for “Midland News.” No fewer than 66 Midland news stories provided by ATV appeared in the national news service of ITN.

In co-operation with the Midlands Police Forces, ATV has presented 52 episodes of the weekly “Police Five” programme. Over 250 crimes have been reported, and the police regard the information provided by television viewers as responsible, in at least ten per cent of the cases, for the successful outcome of police enquiries.

For the fifth successive year, ATV’s presentation of the Royal Show from the National Agricultural Centre, Kenilworth, received nation-wide coveroge.

VIEWING HOURS. ATV shareholders and the viewing public at large should be aware of the fact that your Company, in common with all other Independent Television companies, is denied the right to provide the full and comprehensive service which it is naturally anxious to present. Hours of transmission ore rigidly restricted by order of the Postmaster General, and protests from the Company have proved unavailing. The Authority has listened sympathetically, and is fully aware of the extra programmes which your Company is seeking to provide. Your Company has all the facilities for the immediate provision of the extra hours. Nevertheless, the ban remains, in spite of the fact that the BBC with its two services now provides some thirty more hours of broadcasting each week than is permitted to Independent Television.

COLOUR. In my last Report I stressed the fact that the ATV Network studios at Elstree would, by the autumn of 1966, be fully equipped for Colour operations in the various international line standards. This has been accomplished, and major drama productions electronically recorded in Colour now include three plays, namely “Ivanov” with Sir John Gielgud; “The Tormentors” starring James Mason and Stanley Baker; and “Present Laughter” with Peter O’Toole and Honor Blackman.

Light entertainment productions in Colour include the two-hour programme, “The Heart of Show Business,” in aid of the Aberfan victims; a series of 13 one-hour productions, “Piccadilly Palace,” with Morecambe and Wise, and Millicent Martin; and a series of 26 one-hour programmes, “Spotlight,” with British, American, and other international star artists.

All these productions are additional to the Colour programmes on film, to which I have referred earlier, and to mony documentary programmes made in Colour. Taken together, they constitute the largest library of TV Colour productions in Great Britain.

I am delighted that one of our news film teams, Mr. Gary Hughes and Mr. Noel Smart, should have won the Bronze Medal in the “hard news” section of the 1966 British Television News Film awards. This is the second year running in which ATV network has won on award.

ALPHA STUDIOS, ASTON. ATV Midland transmissions are co-ordinated through the Presentation Centre of Aston, either for networking or for routing to the Authority’s transmitters at Lichfield and Membury.

The Alpha Studios accommodate nearly one hundred hours of rehearsals, recordings and transmissions each week.

SALES. During a year in which there was a standstill in television advertising rates under the tight economic conditions of the “Squeeze,” the Sales Department of ATV Network nonetheless achieved an increase in net revenue of some 4½%. This growth was accomplished in a year when total national advertising appropriations fell for the first time since 1946.

ATV Network has developed the whole scope of television advertising. Holiday Tours, Fashion, and the Big Stores ore all now represented on the London screen; and, in the Midlands, the service has been extended to small businesses, retail shops and garages. Local advertisements now amount to some 1,500 a year. Moreover, industry throughout the Midlands responded warmly to the introduction by ATV Network of a Staff Recruitment Bureau, and viewers have been informed of over 500 vacancies, ranging from drivers and clerks to management accountants and project engineers.

ATV’s “Midlands Merchandiser,” a trade paper for grocers, now reaches more than 8,000 shops, and provides the only service in the industry which forms a direct link between television and the retailer.

“TV WORLD.” The programme journal for the Midlands is owned jointly by ATV Network and ABC Television, and is published by Odhams Press.

From the outset, this magazine set up new publishing records. The circulation has risen steadily from 640,000 when the magazine first appeared in September, 1964, to the figure of over 737,000 at which it stands today. A long and prosperous future had, therefore, confidently been foreseen. Under a new ruling by the Authority, however, separate programme publications will cease after July, 1968, and a national weekly, with regional editions, published on behalf of all companies will supersede them.

I must, on behalf of viewers in the Midlands, enter a plea that the distinctive character and individuality of “TV WORLD” should be preserved intact in the new publication.

EXPORTS

QUEEN’S AWARD FOR EXPORT ACHIEVEMENT. “Her Majesty The Queen has been graciously pleased to confer Her Award in 1967 upon Associated Television Ltd., London, W.1, for export achievement” — I quote the wording of the official citation which gave the world of British entertainment its first Queen’s Award to Industry.

The formal presentation of the Award was made by Major-General Sir George Burns, Lord Lieutenant of the County of Hertfordshire. The ceremony, which the Postmaster-General and members of the Independent Television Authority attended, took place on 4th July in your Company’s Elstree Studios.

I will not attempt to conceal my feelings of pride when I first read the Royal message. Nor will I conceal the fact that I regard it, in unique degree, as public recognition of the untiring work and devotion over the years of one man, your joint Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive, Mr. Lew Grade.

Shareholders should know that the establishment of a television export market for films has been a long, arduous and, at the outset, a heart-breakingly frustrating business. One by one, Mr. Grade has overcome the objections raised by foreign buyers when offered British products; and it is not too much to say that, through his efforts, your subsidiary, Incorporated Television Company, is now one of the most sought-after production sources in the world.

Knowing the strains that are involved in the many and complex transactions I am glad to think that, on his visits abroad, Mr. Grade should have your Managing Director, Mr. Robin Gill, there beside him. Together I believe, they represent the world’s strongest partnership in television film production and international distribution.

ATV EXPORTS TODAY. The turnover figure for your Company’s export of television programmes continues to rise steadily. U.S. dollar sales have passed the $10,000,000 [$91.1m] mark and sales in the European Hemisphere have correspondingly increased. There is every indication that this present trend will not only be maintained, but will be improved upon.

INDEPENDENT TELEVISION CORPORATION. This year your Company will have no fewer than five Colour television series on the American networks. This is the highest number in the history of the Company. In addition, a number of individual plays and documentaries have been sold to the American networks.

These results in the United States could not have been achieved without your Company’s American subsidiary, Independent Television Corporation.

INCORPORATED TELEVISION COMPANY. Nor could these export results have been obtained had it not been for the magnificent work of your production group, Incorporated Television Company. The schedule of work in hand has never been so extensive as at the present moment, and the following series, all in Colour, are currently reaching completion: “Man in a Suitcase”; “The Prisoner”; “The Saint”; “Spotlight”; “Piccadilly Palace”; “The Champions.”

The wealth of British talent among producers, directors, script writers and actors available to I T C has led to a deal with United Artists for three feature films starring Roger Moore. Further feature film productions are in negotiation. All of these are for distribution to cinemas throughout the world.

In addition to its production activities, Incorporated Television Company is responsible for Eastern Hemisphere television sales where the year produced record results. Your company’s programmes are now being shown in 62 countries on this side of the Atlantic alone.

THEATRES

STOLL THEATRES CORPORATION. I am happy to be able to report that this Group, under the chairmanship of Mr. Prince Littler, has enjoyed another successful year.

The current production, “Fiddler On The Roof” at Her Majesty’s Theatre has proved a triumph, and “There’s A Girl In My Soup” at the Globe Theatre has established itself as one of the outstanding attractions of the West End stage. Earlier in the year the centre of theatrical London was to be found at the Queen’s Theatre, which housed Noel Coward’s “Suite In Three Keys,” and the National Theatre Season.

The London Palladium pantomime, “Cinderella,” again broke all records, and “The Black & White Minstrel Show” at the Victoria Palace continues undiminished into its sixth year.

The satisfactory results of the Stoll Theatres Corporation have been achieved despite the dual burdens of Selective Employment Tax and rising costs. Elsewhere in the West End, however, and among the provincial theatres the effects of rising costs and S.E.T. have been most damaging.

PROPERTIES — CENTURY 21 — PYE RECORDS — MUSIC PUBLISHING – MUZAK — BOWLING

PROPERTIES. During the year we have brought our many property interests together within Bentray Investments. We now have a steady programme of improvement and expansion planned for the years ahead.

CENTURY 21. On both sides of the Atlantic it is acknowledged that the “Thunderbirds” series of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson established entirely new levels in film-making ingenuity. Equally remarkable technical advances have now been achieved with a new range of puppets which will be seen for the first time in “Captain Scarlet,” a series of 32 half-hour episodes currently in production in Colour.

CENTURY 21 MERCHANDISING LTD. — PUBLISHING LTD. — TOYS LTD. The business of these three companies is the exploitation of subsidiary rights in television and motion picture properties.

In conjunction with City Magazines Ltd., a subsidiary of the “News of the World,” four children’s weeklies are now being produced and “TV Century 21” and “Lady Penelope” in particular enjoy outstanding success.

PYE RECORDS. The year’s trading has been highly satisfactory. Among Pye Records successes are the First and Second Prize winners in the Eurovision Song Contest. Pye Records has, furthermore, established its Marble Arch Label in the forefront of the growing market for lower-priced LPs.

Overseas, the sale of Pye Records has increased by nearly 9%.

MUSIC PUBLISHING. Our joint companies with Chappells are progressing well.

MUZAK. Over 180 leading companies, practically all household names in British industry, now have the Muzak service of background music installed in one or more of their premises. The rate of recruitment to the Muzak service is greater than at any previous time in the company’s history, and shows recognition of the fact that Muzak provides the only programmed background music service with completely non-repetitive new programmes every day.

AMBASSADOR BOWLING. This company continues to operate profitably despite reduced attendance at bowling centres throughout the country.

TOP DIRECTION — YOUR BOARD – INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS — ATV STAFF

TOP DIRECTION. The rate at which your Company has developed and the steadily widening scope of what I have referred to in earlier Reports as our policy of “Planned Expansion,” has necessitated a new framework at the top.

The new post of Chief Executive has been created, ond this will naturally be filled by Mr. Lew Grade. Knowing, as I do, what every phase of your Company’s activities owes to the brilliant direction of Mr. Grade, let me add that it is only fitting that he should also be appointed a Deputy Chairman of your Company.

The name of Mr. Grade is synonymous with the emergence, over little more than a decode, of the name of ATV as a Company of world-wide standing; and I am delighted to have this opportunity of congratulating him.

I can, moreover, regard myself as fortunate in having on the Board a Deputy Managing Director in the person of Mr. Robin Gill, to whom the wider duties of Managing Director can so confidently be entrusted. I om happy to add my thanks to Mr. Gill for the great part which he is playing in your Company’s affairs. The partnership between Mr. Grade ond Mr. Gill to which I have referred earlier in connection with our Overseas Sales, is one which I am happy to say extends also to every aspect of your Company’s business.

During the post year. Mr. Grade become Chairman of Independent Television’s Network Planning Committee, and Mr. Robin Gill hos been asked to continue for a further period as Chairman of the Independent Television Companies Association.

My thanks, too, must go to the Company’s Finance Director, Mr. Jack Gill whose contribution to the running of the Company has proved of immense value.

Finally, I have to report that, owing to other business commitments, Mr. R. P. T. Gibson has tendered his resignation from your Board. Mr. Gibson has been a Director of your Company since 1957, ond I om only sorry that this long connection should now be broken.

BOARD OF ASSOCIATED TELEVISION. Let me say how deeply appreciative I am of all the help which I have received over the year from the various members of your most distinguished and experienced Board.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. Despite the unprecedented problems set by the Government’s Prices and Incomes policy, the Group has been able to continue its progressive approach towards the Unions, and has maintained good relations with its staff and with the Unions with which it negotiates.

A completely new system to productivity payments on the part of ATV Network Ltd. was worked out with the Unions and has been approved by the Ministry of Labour. New inter-Union arrangements were negotiated for Century 21 Productions, and these will eliminate various awkward lines of demarcation.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF. My co-Directors join me in expressing their warmest thanks to everyone at all levels: Managerial staff, sales staff, accountancy staff and secretarial staff play their part equally with the technicians, the skilled craftsmen and the artistic producers and directors within the Company, and without their loyal and untiring efforts these admirable results could never have been attained.

The post ATV financial results: 1967 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

Your television subsidiary, ATV Network Ltd, commenced its new contract with the Independent Television Authority on the 30th July 1968. The results for this past year have therefore included approximately four months of the old licence period when the company operated partly in the Midlands and partly in the London area, and eight months of the new licence period when our operation was for all seven days of the week in the Midlands.

The Board of this subsidiary company was reconstituted during the year and two very distinguished figures with widespread involvement in the life of the Midlands accepted our invitation to become directors. Dame Isabel Graham Bryce had retired some two years previously as a Member of the ITA. She has, thus, a detailed knowledge of the working of IndependentTelevision and clear views about its future development and its responsibility in each region of the country. In addition, her work as Chairman of the East Midlands Hospital Board and in many other fields of social work in the Midlands, gives ATV Network a new strength.

Sir George Farmer is Chairman of the Rover Car Company and brings to your Board a lifetime of experience from the exceptionally competitive British engineering industry. He is also a Director of the great British Leyland Motor Corporation, and his knowledge of modern industrial practices, of labour relations work and marketing, including the vital export field, will be an immense benefit to the Company. Sir George’s interests also include his Chairmanship of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Pro-Chancellorship of Birmingham University.

In addition, Mr Leonard Mathews, the General Manager in the Midlands, was elected a Director during the year. We welcome all three.

The repercussions of the Independent Television Authority’s decision to change the structure of the industry have been both profound and disturbing.

A very great deal of time has been involved, both in internal reorganisation of ATV Network, and also in arriving at new networking and other arrangements for the exchange of programmes between the various companies for the new licence period.

A new contractor was brought into the group of companies which supply the network with most of its programmes. Thus five companies were called upon to make the same number of programmes as four did previously-with a commensurate rise in everyone’s costs. In the initial months of the new licence period ATV Network, therefore, found itself with a reduction in total output.

Subsequent network re-scheduling resulted in a sudden considerable increase in the total output required from ATV’s studios. This produced a most difficult and continuing problem for our staff at Elstree and Birmingham.

Television Levy

The increase in the Levy announced in the Chancellor’s Budget speech came like a bombshell. It is quite clear that a major miscalculation has been made. The financial viability of ITV had been drastically altered as a result of the redistribution of licences and the past decisions of the Government to change the line standard from 405 to 625, and to introduce colour. These decisions, together with the requirement for new Midland studios, created an additional capital requirement, which will amount to about £7 millions in ATV Network alone. Your Board had come to the conclusion before the Budget that every effort should be made to impress upon the Chancellor that the Levy should be reduced.

We have made representations and will continue to press the Government with the utmost vigour to make a very substantial reduction in the Levy.

Staff relations

Almost immediately following the change of licence last summer, the industry was subjected to a major and quite unnecessary national strike by its ACTT members. This strike was created partly by the lack of confidence within the industry as a result of the licence change. Only after the industry had suffered considerable losses was it possible to return to the ordinary negotiating machinery and ultimately find a solution.

Concurrently with the negotiations with ACTT, the industry reached new agreements with its other major Unions – NATKE, ETU, NUJ and Equity. It is well worth mentioning that the new agreement reached with Equity was extremely complex but was negotiated with great goodwill, with each side adjusting its position so that benefits could flow to both.

It is the earnest hope of your Board and the Board of ATV Network, that a new basis of sound relations has been created within the company for the future. Short term productivity agreements were reached both at our Elstree studios and at Birmingham to cover our present production activities. We have now asked each of the main Unions to negotiate with us long term productivity deals protecting both their individual interests and your company’s throughout the remaining five years of the present television licence. We have been pleased with the initial response from the Unions to these proposals. They are now under detailed negotiation but we will need the full understanding of our Union employees that the only way the company can afford to pay additional wages beyond the exceptionally high levels which already apply in this industry is in return for further direct calculable improvements in individual productivity.

New Midland Studios

We are well pleased with the progress in completing our new television studios at Paradise Centre in Birmingham. Both our architects and the equipment manufacturers have worked well with us to ensure that the new studios will be available for transmissions from the target date next month.

By the early part of 1970 all parts of the Paradise Centre Television Studios will be fully operational.

Programmes

The centre of ATV Network’s activities is in its programmes. In spite of the many difficulties of the past year, ATV has once again produced a wide range of programmes of all types. Some of the highlights of the past year are shown on page 13.

There have been indications of a reduction in the total amount of viewing for television programmes. The largest proportion of the decline has fallen to BBC programming in spite of its control of two channels and monopoly of free advertising for its television programmes on BBC radio – a very great advantage which BBC Television enjoys. In the last six months, ATV Network’s proportion of the total television audience has risen substantially, and now stands at approximately 56%, with BBC1 and BBC2 combined having 44%.

ATV Network’s Educational Advisory Committee has been reconstituted under the Chairmanship of Professor Ronald Maudsley.

ITN

Like the rest of the industry ITN must operate on the 625 line system and in colour later this year. ITN’s Board therefore had no alternative but to agree plans for the building of a new ITN Studio Centre in London. These studios when equipped will cost about £1.5 million and represent a further large but unavoidable capital outlay for the industry. There will also be higher running costs when programming is in colour.

We were delighted to hear that Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, have agreed to honour the industry by making the official opening of these studios in November.

UN’s major news programme, ‘News at Ten’, continues to appear regularly in the Top 20 charts and draws widespread international acclaim.

Your Managing Director, Mr Robin Gill, became the Chairman of ITN during the year.

Viewing Hours

Last Autumn the Government allowed a tiny extension in the hours of broadcasting available to the BBC and ITV. We were grateful for this first indication that our long-standing request for the complete removal of all restrictions on the hours of broadcasting might yet be brought about.

We do most earnestly recommend that this restriction should be removed. It is wholly out of date and against the interests of the viewer. There are significant minority and other groups in the population who cannot be reached so long as such restrictions continue to apply.

TV Times

The year saw the unhappy closing of our very successful Midland magazine TV World. This came about as a result of the ITA’s new policy, which required all companies to use one programme magazine for the whole country.

The new national magazine was a re-creation of the TV Times. This new project involved heavy pre-operational charges, and it has taken a very considerable time to produce a continuing trading profit from the venture.

EVR (Electronic Video Recording)

ATV Network continues to keep a careful watch on the many technological developments within the television and electronic industries.

One of the most promising of these developments is a process for playing cassetted programmes through your home television set. This system is called EVR and we are pleased that the first full programme produced for this new system will be one of ATV’s.

Some of ATV Network’s programmes in the past year

Plays
‘Macneil, Cornelius and Emlyn’ a trilogy by Alun Owen shown in world markets as ‘Male of The Species’*, ‘A Heritage and its History’ adapted from novel by Ivy Compton Burnett, ‘A Matter of Diamonds’ by Paul Lee, ‘Retreat’ by John Hale, ‘The Marrying Kind’ by David Reid, ‘Colombe’ adapted from Jean Anouilh, ‘The Square on the Hypotenuse’ by Anthony Skene, ‘Uncle Jonathan’ by Linette Purbi Perry, ‘Stealers of Darkness’ by Jacques Gilles, ‘A Most Unfortunate Accident’ by John Bowen.

Drama Series
‘The Power Game’, ‘Fraud Squad’, ‘Love Story’, ‘Crimebuster’, ‘Crossroads’, ‘Honey Lane’, ‘Virgin of the Secret Service’, ‘Driveway’.

Light Entertainment and Comedy
‘This is Tom Jones’, ‘The Liberace Show’, ‘The Des O’Connor Show’, ‘George & The Dragon’ starring Peggy Mount and Sid James, ‘It’s The Bachelors’, ‘The Golden Shot’, ‘Goodbye Again’ starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke, ‘The Big Show’, ‘The Jimmy Tarbuck Show’, ‘The Real Mike Yarwood’, ‘Stars’ with Maurice Woodruff, ‘With Bird Will Travel’, starring John Bird, ‘John Brown’s Body’, starring Peggy Mount & Naunton Wayne, ‘It Must Be Dusty’, with Dusty Springfield.

Late Night Shows
‘Tonight with Dave Allen’, ‘Tonight with David Nixon’.

Current Affairs
‘Man of The Month’ including Governor Wallace, Dr Borlaugh, Deputy Prime Minister Allon of Israel, General Lemnitzer, Dr Lindt of the Red Cross. ‘Midland News’, ‘ATV Today’, ‘Police Five’, ‘Meet The Mayor’, ‘The Power from Beyond’.

Documentaries
‘Big Fish, Little Fish’ by Anthony Firth*. ‘The Lion & The Dragon’ by Robin Brown, ‘Welcome to Britain’ by Ross Devenish, ‘The Three Happiest Years’ by Norman Swallow, ‘Anything Can Happen’ by Hugh Raggett, ‘The Old Boys’ by Ken Ashton, ‘Hospital’ by David Rea.

Sports & O.B.’s included:
‘Wimbledon 1968’, ‘Cup Final 1968’, ‘Royal Show 1968/69’, ‘British Grand Prix’*, ‘Sportsweek’, ‘Sports from the Midlands’, ‘Major Football Matches’.

Religion
‘All Creatures Great & Small’ by Jean Morton, ‘Once More with Feeling’ Music, ‘The Church and I’ Discussion Panel.

Children’s Programmes
‘The Tingha and Tucker Club’.

Education
‘Towards Mathematics’, ‘Primary French’, ‘Ici La France’, ‘The Universe’ with Sir Bernard Lovell.

* Programmes which have won International Awards

Amongst those appearing in our programmes have been the following: Anne Bancroft, Shelly Berman, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Harry Corbett, Jim Dale, Phylis Diller, Sacha Distel, The Fifth Dimension, George Gobel, Engelbert Humperdinck, Sid James, Michael Jayson, Tom Jones, Nemone Lethbridge, Liberace, Anna Calder-Marshall, George Maharis, Mireille Mathieu, Barbara Murray, Peggy Mount, Des O’Connor, Sir Laurence Olivier, Eric Porter, Nyree Dawn Porter, Marjorie Proops, Juliet Prowse, Lynn Redgrave, Cliff Richard, Peter Sellers, Paul Scofield, Sheila Scott, Lord Soper, Ann Todd, Terry-Thomas, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Kenneth Williams, Patrick Wymark.

The post Annual Report 1969 appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

And her one regret is that her double shift makes it impossible for her to see Shakespeare at the Stratford Memorial Theatre. For five evenings a week she reads the news from 5.55 to 6 o’clock.

“It’s almost 6.30 by the time my make-up is removed,” she says. “The Memorial Theatre performance begins at 7.30 and I just can’t make it by bus.”

I don’t think it will be long before she has a car — and then she’ll be able to go again.

Last year she went to the Memorial Theatre nearly 50 times and saw each play six times. In 1951 she saw each play in the historic cycle seven times.

Her ambitions are to do more TV work and to act at the Memorial Theatre.

Patricia, who is 25, was auditioned, with scores of other girls for Midlands newscaster at the beginning of May. Producer Ned Sherrin liked her immediately. So did ATV’s Midlands controller Philip Dorte. A private transmission was piped to Val Parnell, in London. Patricia was called for a further test and given a contract.

Apart from a two-week holiday she has been seen every week-day since.

It’s a long day for Patricia. She arrives at the gown-shop in a suburb of Birmingham at 9 o’clock each morning. She models and sells gowns till after 4, when she leaves by taxi for the television theatre at Aston. She reaches the theatre at 4.40, is made up, and runs through the news with Sherrin and Raymond Roden, the man who scripts it for TV. She uses the intervening time before 5.55 to memorise as much as possible of the script.

Her calm, sympathetic approach to the news has won her many admirers. She receives a lot of fan mail and people recognise her in the street.

“I try to be as personal as possible when reading human interest stories,” she says. “I find the best way of putting anything over is to forget the camera and technicians and imagine I am talking to mother at home.”

Though newscasting was Patricia’s first experience of television, she has broadcast in several plays. She set out to be an actress while at Wolverhampton Art School and studied for 18 months with an elocutionist. She won the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art’s gold medal for elocution.

Then she took a drama course at Birmingham Theatre School and appeared in many plays. No wonder the theatre — and music — are her hobbies.

She likes to spend her weekends in the country. Usually this means a trip to the Cotswolds — more often than not to Stratford-on-Avon. Just to look at the Memorial Theatre.

The post Girl behind the news appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

from the ATV Television Show Book for 1962

For over a year now, the ex-actor who has also invaded the sacred precincts of the world of the disc-jockey, has been glibly spouting the correct replies to the brain-teasing questions which form the main basis on which his popular programme relies for its attraction to the viewing public. Like the questions, the answers are supplied by a number of the staff of Encyclopaedia Britannica. But to hear them roll off the smooth tongue of the bespectacled quiz-master one would think that here, in fact, was the oracle… the fount of all knowledge!

Shaw Taylor is the first to admit that from his Tuesday evening programmes he has amassed a great store of information about which he was previously unaware. He is also honest in admitting that, without the written answers, he would — like so many of his viewers — be at a loss for the correct replies to the questions which he, and his attractive co-compere, Australian Lisa Finlayson, pose for those at home who are watching.

Sticking out a determined chin, nestling beneath a perpetual, good-natured grin, he has gone on record as saying that he doubts if there is anyone in Britain who, if he or she has watched every Pencil and Paper programme, could claim to have got every question right. ‘That is half the fun’, says the 37-year-old Shaw. ‘The other half is leaving the viewers with the hangover question. They get the answer the following week. But what happens during the week…?’

He visualises viewers phoning up their friends, checking on books of reference, or covering acres of paper with calculations when the problem is mathematical, or of the kind which psychologists love to indulge in.

From the manner and the accuracy in which they answer Shaw and Lisa’s questions viewers can gain some idea of their I.Q. — that modern means (the initials stand for ‘intelligence quotient’) through which, nowadays, so many jobs are filled, so many places in schools and colleges allocated.

An I.Q. of 125 is outstanding — and exceptional. Napoleon is credited with having had 125. So had Nelson. Shaw Taylor admits to 100 — ‘just above average’.

The mail which he — and the programme — attracts reflects a tremendous interest among the viewers to show that this way of assessing ‘what they’ve got upstairs’ is something which intrigues them and which, in its own way, must be regarded as something of a challenge.

There have been weeks when mailbags arriving at ATV’s London headquarters following a Pencil and Paper programme have contained letters and post cards amounting to almost a quarter of a million. Many of these are answers to the hang-over question. Others are from interested viewers who want to discuss some question — or answer — with Shaw. Not a few are from proud parents who want to tell of the success of a son or a daughter answering questions.

As with all letters received by television personalities, Shaw Taylor’s mail swings from the irate viewers — complaining that when the slightest thing goes wrong with a programme it is Shaw Taylor’s fault — to the pleasant letters of admiration. And, of course, there are the inevitable marriage proposals — an intriguing feature this, for all who become familiar to the country’s millions of television viewers, thanks to the feeling of proximity and intimacy which a television set in the living-room brings.

The letters of praise — even those suggesting marriage — might have been even more numerous had Shaw Taylor fully realised the ambition which attended his first decision to ‘go into show business’; he wanted to be a very successful actor, with a leaning to comedy roles.

In his reflective moments, enjoying the small cigars which he smokes through a large holder, he will tell of his love for the theatre, which goes back to a very early age.

He was born in the North London suburb of Hackney and every Monday evening after school he would go round to the local Hackney Empire, spend his pocket money on a seat in the ‘gods’ and eagerly wait for the curtain to go up on the weekly variety show.

But there was to be no easy way into the ‘profession’ for him. When he left school at the age of 15 he went into an office job. It was his wartime service with the R.A.F. which kindled the ‘show business’ ambition. He was serving in Burma as a radar operator. Live entertainment was scant, almost to the point of being non-existent. A group of airmen decided to band together to entertain the other servicemen stationed in that part of the world. Their efforts were fairly successful, and when they returned to Britain the group vowed that when they were demobbed they would meet again to start a repertory acting company. Then they went their various ways.

Back in London, Shaw Taylor found someone else in his office job. Remembering his Burma days, he applied for — and got — an L.C.C. grant to train at a dramatic school. He admits that one of his reasons for taking dramatic training was to lose his Cockney accent. He also recalls that when he went for his first audition for a stage part after leaving the school the first question put to him was: ‘Can you do a Cockney accent?’

Plays in London’s West End and with various repertory companies throughout Britain; film work — even working for an ice show (mostly on the Ivor Novello themes) followed as he ran the full gamut of show business experience. Though he is quick to explain that he didn’t do any skating. He dubbed the voices of the skaters as they ‘spoke’ Novello’s lines.

But hard though repertory acting and touring work may be, he is honest in admitting that his toughest job has been that of a television announcer. It was in this way that Shaw Taylor first became associated with ATV. For many months on end he was the ATV announcer seen most weekends by viewers in the London area.

Then came the opportunity to take over the chairman’s role in one of ATV’s best known quiz shows, Tell the Truth. Another quiz game, This Is Your Chance, was to follow and Shaw Taylor was again the chairman, as he had also been for some time in the programme Dotto. When Pencil and Paper first appeared it seemed quite natural that he should be the chairman. He appears to have found his niche.

But he has never allowed himself to become stereotyped, even in this rewarding kind of work. He has been heard as the commentator at some of the biggest outside broadcasts covered by ATV. This work has often taken him far afield — even to Russia, where he obtained what was probably the first ‘live’ interview with the Russian leader Mr. Khruschev, when he visited the British Trade Fair in Moscow on its opening day.

If the flames of ambition to be an actor have been dampened down slightly during the past few years, Shaw Taylor hasn’t turned his back entirely on his feelings for the stage. Now this takes the form of writing for it. He would dearly love to write a stage play. But this takes time and long, unbroken spells of concentration. In the busy life he leads today both of these are commodities in short supply. And in this very full life the weekly commuting which he undertakes between London and Birmingham, from where Pencil and Paper is broadcast, is only one of his regular commitments.

There is his radio disc show to compere. His books to be read (his taste is mostly for historical subjects). His cream-coloured sports coupe to be driven and kept trim. His sailing to be pursued with the same zest that he applies to most things in his life.

Not much time left. As he himself would so aptly comment, speaking with that infectious chuckle in his voice: ‘It’s all go — but I love it.’

That’s Taylor to a tee.

The post Shaw Taylor appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post Tele-snaps: Clocks appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

And as Jean Morton, sparkling-eyed actress, commentator, interviewer and TV personality, she’s becoming part of the pattern of television in the Midlands. She is ATV’s new staff announcer.

Jean has been happily married for 10 years. She lived in Cardiff until a year ago, when her husband, a sales engineer, moved to the Midlands. They have two children — Eloise (9) and Gavin (6).

Although her professional activities take her all over the country, Jean spends a lot of time at Sutton Coldfield. Recently she was elected to the committee of the local Conservative Club. “I find the work very interesting,” says Jean. “That’s what comes of sitting in the front row at one of the meetings!”

Besides working extensively in television, Jean is in demand for fashion commentaries. She is booked by fashion houses throughout the country, and was engaged at the recent Homes and Gardens Exhibition in Birmingham.

Her ability as a fashion commentator stems from her work in a programme called What’s New in Nylon, which came from Cardiff. She made such an impact that she’s been in demand ever since.

Christian Dior was so impressed by the way she described a visit to his costume jewellery factory in Wales that he presented her with a brooch.

In addition to her three days a week as ATV staff announcer, Jean travels to Manchester every weekend to appear in the advertising magazine What’s In Store.

Jean views her busy life realistically: “I come home after every job and get down to domestic chores. There are lots of things only a mother can do. Washing the children’s hair is one. It’s no use getting starry-eyed about mixing with mink and diamond tiaras when you have to get down to brass tacks as soon as you get home.”

It was her daughter Eloise who first gave Jean the idea of approaching ATV. “You always seem to be working from London or Manchester, Mummy,” she said. “Why don’t you try and do something from Birmingham?”

Jean took her daughter’s advice. It has certainly proved sound.

Like Noele Gordon, with whom she toured in Black Velvet for three years, Jean is a Scot. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and went into repertory. At the height of the blitz she joined Black Velvet. During the run she became engaged.

“My husband, Bob, was a childhood sweetheart,” she recalls. “I hadn’t seen him for years — until the show happened to be playing at Dudley. One night an Army officer came backstage to see me. It was Bob. Stationed nearby, he had seen my name on the posters and called round.

“From then on we saw each other as often as possible. Then Bob was sent to India, and I didn’t see him for six years. We became engaged and were married when he got back to this country.”

Jean decided to stabilise herself in London. First she made two films — A Yank in the West Country, in which she played an American, and London Town, with Sid Field.

“I’ve managed to acquire quite a range of dialects,” says Jean. “American and mid-European are my specialities. So far, I haven’t been able to master the rich Birmingham accent, but I’m training hard.”

The post Announcing – Jean Morton appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.